


Out of the Frying Pan™️ and Into the Baking Tins

by Writingfangirlforhire



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Baker Nanase Haruka, Baker Yamazaki Sousuke, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Barista Hazuki Nagisa, Barista Matsuoka Gou, Barista Mikoshiba Momtarou, Barista Ryuugazaki Rei, But also, Cupcakes, Firefighter Tachibana Makoto, Fires, M/M, No Body Fucking Knows What Nitori Does For A Living, Okay this is important alright?, Police Cadet Nanase Haruka, Police Cadet Yamazaki Sousuke, Police Officer Matsuoka Rin, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Scientist Ryuugazaki Rei, Slow Burn, Trauma, but also fluff, injuries, new life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 09:15:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8618596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writingfangirlforhire/pseuds/Writingfangirlforhire
Summary: They were police cadets together, Rin, Haru, and Sousuke. Makoto was a Firefighter, Nagisa Co-Owned a coffee shop with Gou, and Rei was a scientist. With just 8 months till graduation into the police force, Haru and Sousuke were on the fast train to their planned out lives as cops by Rin's side. At least until a fire burnt the training center to a crisp, Makoto barely able to save their lives in time. But the made it out alive.That doesn't change the fact that Sousuke can never be a cop because of his ruined shoulder, or the fact that Haru doesn't say up to three words at a time, if he speaks at all, and walks with a psychosomatic limp. Their lives are ruined.At least until Haru starts baking cupcakes and Nagisa convinces him to buy the shop next to his and Gou's coffee shop. The bakery that Haru starts gets titled Free!style Cakes (No one's sure why there's an exclamation point in the title, they blame Nagisa).Can a cupcake bakery bring more healing than any doctor ever would? Can a sore-shouldered, sore-tempered, tall, pain in the ass find recovery there too?





	

Mako was running. Honest to God, sprinting. He couldn't park any closer to the building because of all of the crowds, but he was already mostly dressed in his firefighter uniform as he sprinted through the crowd. He was sprinting and somehow still managing to get his coat on.

He felt sick to his stomach when he made it to the burning police training center. Naturally most of the police officers were corralling the various trainees into the parking lot, but there were still a few who were running out of the police station coughing and calling roll call. Makoto made it to the firetruck and grabbed a helmet, mask, and some gloves.

“Makoto! There are still officers and trainees inside!” the Fire Chief yelled as he speed-walked an officer with burns to the ambulance. Makoto was spinning in circles looking for two faces in particular. He saw one of them straining against the arms of a few officers.

“Rin!” Makoto ran to his friend, tears were streaming down the young man's face.

“Makoto!” Rin screamed when he saw him, “Haru and Sousuke are still inside!”

Makoto was running again, into the flaming building, with no information on where the other two trainees were hidden. He found another few firefighters who were carrying out injured, Makoto looked over the injured to see whether it was the two he was looking for.

“Haru?! Yamazaki Sousuke?! Haru?!” Makoto called as he searched for them. Makoto's receiver crackled loudly at him through the fire.

“Tachibana! Are you still inside?!” the Fire Chief's voice crackled through the receiver. Makoto lifted the receiver to his mouth, pulling down the mask.

“Yes Chief, I was told there are still at least two trainees still in the building sir,” Makoto explained as he headed towards the showers at the back of the building. Seemed like a place that Haru would be hiding. Makoto hoped Haru wasn't dumb enough to be in the pool. He could boil to death, and there wasn't any windows or fire-escape in the pool room.

“We've got a reported five and the building is coming down,” The Chief's crackling voice was almost covered by the sounds of the building cracking around him, “Hurry up Tachibana! And be careful.”

“Yes sir!” Makoto put his receiver back on its clip and put his mask back up before heading farther into the building. Fire was falling from the ceiling in some parts and the old training center wasn't nearly as up to code as perhaps it should have been, so it was still highly flammable in some areas, and now the metal roof supports were starting to come down. Makoto was almost to the showers when a large metal beam came down. Makoto leapt out of the way of falling debris. He hit the floor with a thud as dust, fire, and rubble was heavy in the air.

The flames were higher right where he was going, to the showers. Makoto jogged past the flames that licked at his fire-proof suit. He climbed over the beam that fell, climbing through the hole in the wall to get into the bathroom. He could hear the process of the rest of the roof caving in and falling over.

He saw them. Haru was shirtless (of course) and had lots of cuts and what looked like some pretty bad blistering on his side, and a 2nd, nearly 3rd, degree burn on his leg. And Makoto could see why, because Haru was right beside a burning section of wall.

But Sousuke was so much worse. He was the reason why Haru was still kneeling beside the burning wall, Haru was coughing really bad and his mouth was completely uncovered so he was breathing the thick smoke in directly. But he had a good reason why, seeing as both of his hands were focused in trying to get Sousuke uncovered from a huge chunk of rubble that looked like it fell with the beam, which was only four feet from Haru and Sousuke.

Makoto was emotionally invested with every bone in his body, and, if it hadn't have been for his training, he might have stood there and stared at the horrific scene in front of him. But thankfully his training had him moving and going through what he needed to before his brain could fully comprehend everything.

“Haru, put this on,” Makoto pulled a filter mask out of his pocket and pushed it onto his best friend, all while moving Haru away from the flames and turning to the trapped cadet.

“Yamazaki Sousuke,” Makoto kneeled down, noticing every injury. Plenty of bleeding and burned areas, but also what looked like a crushed arm underneath the rubble. Makoto also noticed Haru's grey shirt was covered in water, or maybe that was sweat, and was covering Sousuke's mouth, “I'm going to get you out of here okay?”

“Tachibana! State your location! The rest of the building is coming down and we found the other three cadets!” Chief crackled over the receiver, barely audible over the crackle of the fire and the creaking of a building falling apart.

“This is Tachibana, I've got Cadets' Nanase and Yamazaki in the showers at the back of the building, where a beam fell. One is trapped under a pile of rubble with several other injuries, the other is suffering from smoke inhalation and 2nd to 3rd degree burns. Working on extracting the first.” Makoto explained as he worked on putting a filter mask on Sousuke one handed. After he finished checking in, he started pulling off the heavy chunks of debris that were on Sousuke's arm.

Makoto worked hard for a few moments before he noticed Haru working beside him, still coughing. Makoto didn't stop him though, knowing that it would go faster if Haru helped.

Sousuke was unconcious it seemed, but Makoto could see the rattling of his chest moving up and down. It was mostly the blood on the floor around his head that concerned Makoto. That and the fact that the fire that had burned Haru was not that far from Sousuke's head.

Makoto heard the rumble before he looked and he saw more ceiling crumbling towards them. He yanked Haru under him and put his body over Sousuke's head and chest. It hurt, the debris falling on him was painful and was sure to leave nasty bruises. But nothing fell on him to incapacitate him. So after it settled some he quickly released Haru and finished up what he had left to get off of Sousuke.

“Chief!” Makoto grabbed his receiver to radio the chief but when he pulled the radio to his covered mouth, he noticed that the back of it had been bashed by debris. He checked again and could tell that the receiver had broken.

“Haru, I'm going pick up Yamazaki okay? Then we're gonna get out of here,” Makoto looked over at Haru when he didn't get a response. Haru was staring blankly, tears streaming down his ash covered face. When Haru made eye contact finally, Makoto took that as enough and bent over to pick Sousuke up and put him across his shoulders. After Makoto adjusted the bigger man so that he could keep ahold of him, he turned to Haru and tried to pull him along. But Haru was limping from the burn and was not verbally communicating. So Makoto just support him with one arm while holding on to Sousuke's legs with the other. Haru opened the door when they got to it, (Makoto didn't think he could climb through the whole in the wall with Sousuke on his shoulders) and they were met with a flame lined hallway. Makoto practically dragged Haru through the hallway, thinking that maybe he should have put Sousuke on one shoulder and Haru on the other.

It took nearly a full minute to drag Haru to the closest and safest door to outside. The cold air hit them with full force and Makoto heard Haru gasp softly beside him at the bitter air. Makoto dragged them far away from the building before dropping Haru and pulling off their masks. He laid Sousuke down as gently as he could before pulling of the injured man's mask. Haru was breathing raggedly and Sousuke looked like he had stopped breathing. But his heart was still beating and, when Makoto looked closer, was actually just breathing shallowly, too shallowly. Makoto ran towards the front of the building, yelling and waving his arms.

“This way! I've got two injured! This way!” He screamed. A few of the other firefighters and the Paramedics started running towards him. The Chief's face melted into relief but he stayed where he was, overseeing the hosing down of the building to stop the fire.

A flurry of people surrounded Haru and Sousuke, and two of the ambulances were driven closer to them. Rin some how made it into the ambulance with Haru and Makoto was busy giving a description of Sousuke's wounds to one of the paramedics as he helped them load Sousuke onto the stretcher.

As Haru and Sousuke were whisked off to the hospital, Rin going with them as one of Haru's emergency medical contacts, Makoto turned back to finish his job. Fighting fire.

It was hours later when Makoto, with ash all over his face and his blonde hair an utter mess, made it to the hospital. He found Rin in the emergency room, waiting. Makoto saw the tears in Rin's burgundy colored eyes, red in more than one way. He sat beside the police cadet and set his hand on Rin's thigh.

“How are they?” Makoto's voice was rougher and deeper than usual.

“Haru's unconcious in room B-157, being treated for smoke inhalation, 3rd degree burns, and multiple lacerations. He won't say a word to anyone and they think that his throat might have suffered some damage, if not then its probably psychological trauma. They put him to sleep in any case,” Rin reported wearily, his voice was thick, probably from both exhaustion and crying, “Sousuke on the other hand..... He's been in surgery for nearly four hours now. So no one's come to tell me what all his happening with him but... it's not good. It can't be good if they've been in there for four fucking hours.” Rin kicked the ground with his heel. His tears were streaming silently down his face and his body shook with silent hiccups.

Makoto and Rin were friends. Not as close with each other as they were with Haru. So, as not super close friends who were both 19, physical contact was normally kept to a minimum.

But tonight was not normal. Tonight, had been a traumatic experience. Particularly for Rin, who felt everything so passionately, the reason why he was becoming a cop.

Tonight, Tachibana Makoto put his arms around Matsuoka Rin, and the latter folded into a hug, pushing his face into the former's chest to cry. Makoto had finished training as a firefighter a year ago, so he'd been doing this for a little while. Makoto didn't cry. Makoto waited.

Sousuke finally got out of surgery after 6 hours, where they had worked on his crushed shoulder and snapped arm and getting rubble out of his body. His head was bandaged, his chest was bandaged, he was being treated for burns, smoke inhalation (less smoke inhalation than what Haru had suffered though), multiple lacerations, and his entire right arm and shoulder was in a huge cast. He was so pale, and Rin cried when he saw him.

Makoto had left to go see Haru an hour after he'd gotten there, when Rin's training instructors and a couple fellow cadets had shown up to support him and the others. Makoto fell asleep in Haru's room, in the chair beside the bed. He was so exhausted that he slept through the ten million visits from the nurses through the rest of the night.

* * *

 

**One Month Later**

Haru was sat on his couch, watching the tv. It was a popular reality tv show. But Haru wasn't actually watching it. He wasn't actually doing much of anything. As usual. And yet, at the exact same time as usual, his eyes snapped up to look at the clock. He counted the seconds. _1 2 3 4 5 6......_

At 95 seconds, Haru's door was knocked on. Haru sighed and almost nodded to himself as the three knock pattern played twice. Why Makoto didn't just walk in, he never was sure. “Haru! It's me!” Makoto called cheerfully. Haru didn't say anything. But when Makoto walked into the room holding onto a bag of groceries, Haru held up his fingers. 1, 2, 5.

“Okay, a minute and a half is not late Haru,” Makoto complained, walking over to turn off the tv. “How are you feeling?”

Haru shrugged.

“Good,” Makoto said cheerfully. In a month, Makoto learned that any response at all from Haru was usually a positive. Haru stood up, gripping the cane with a carved dolphin for the handle (a gift from Rei) to walk. Haru limped to the kitchen where Makoto put groceries onto the counter and started putting them away. “You really need to find something to do other than stare blankly at the tv Haru.”

Haru stared blankly at him.

Makoto shrugs in response. “I went to see Sousuke the other day. Rin says that he's a pain in the ass and is being stubborn about his shoulder. Sounds kind of familiar,” Makoto gives Haru a pointed look that gets just a shrug. Makoto stayed around to chat at Haru for a few minutes before he had to leave again. Leaving a simple, “Do something today Haru, you could bake a cake for all I care, I know you have the ingredients.”

Haru just shrugged.

 


End file.
